How to Become a Media Darling

Every startup wants to be the belle of the media ball. But what do you do if the press just aren’t biting? It’s all the worse if they’re lavishing attention on the competition.

From Pixabay

So
why do media latch onto certain topics, personalities, companies and
brands? Given that reporters, with varying degrees of editorial
oversight, have discretion about what they cover, the $1M PR question is
how to become the object of a media love fest.

There’s no simple
answer or formula, else we’d all be famous for 15 minutes. You can start
to get a sense by tracking their stories: reading between the lines,
unpacking sentiment and bias and tuning in to their social media
conversations.

Or you can read this. I share some rules below, based on my many years of experience helping startups launch and grow with PR. The tips reference examples from technology and politics.

The Power of Brand

Build a strong and admired brand, and the media will beat a path to your door — or at least spend less time dodging your pitches.

It’s hard to overestimate the importance of
brand. Witness the media fascination with Trump, or any of the big tech
players (of course, the coverage is not necessarily fawning, with either
of the above examples).

The brands become a muse that pay dividends in terms of earned media coverage – often with no discernible hard news in sight.

The obvious question for a B2B startup is, exactly how can you achieve this?